Rossi clinches IndyCar rookie honours after Sonoma top-five

Alexander Rossi finished fifth at the season finale at Sonoma Raceway and in doing so clinched the rookie of the year honours.

The Andretti Herta Autosport racer was set to finish fourth but slipped to fifth approaching the finish line as he ran out of fuel, with Rossi seeing the irony of him running out of fuel here when he did an amazing job at the Indianapolis 500 to win there back in May.

“The race was really strong until the last corner when we ran out of fuel,” said Rossi. “We hit our fuel numbers the whole race so it must have been a glitch in calibration numbers feeding back to the pit wall.

“Out of turn 11 on the final stretch the car fell flat on its face and allowed Ryan by me. It’s a shame because I had kept him behind me the whole race. It’s weird how this sport works sometimes; winning the biggest race in history last earlier in the year the same way.”

Rossi admitted that the whole year had been a fantastic one for the former Formula 1 star, and he praised his team for the season, and hinted that good news is on the way about his future, which is set to be IndyCar for the foreseeable future.

“It was a fantastic year for my first season in IndyCar,” said Rossi. “Huge credit to the team for what we accomplished from St. Pete onward developing our car. Andretti is a top notch team and it’s been a real pleasure to work with the whole team and Honda this year.

“I want to thank everyone involved for the opportunity they have given me in 2016 and I look forward to sharing some very good news about my future soon.”